For Mike Rice, only thing to say is the other F word

 

Rutgers coach mike Rice reacts on the sidelines in a win against DePaul during the primary half of their game in the Big East tournament on March 12 at Madison square toes Garden.(Photo: Debby Wong, USA TODAY Sports)

 

Is microph one Rice still the basketball coach at Rutgers?

Just asking.

I shun to use the word "fired." It happens to too more coaches for too many bad reasons, and the idea is thrown around too coolly by too many outsiders, who too eagerly fling men – and their families -- into punching bags over ballgames.

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And yet, three minutes spent watching the sorry spectacle from the approach patterns at Rutgers, what else is there to say? After all the name-calling, and ball-hurling, and tantrum-throwing and screaming and hollering and pushing and shoving, what else is there possibly left to say?

Nothing.

there is vigor else to say, because if this is the only flair a coach knows how to demand uprightness and fuel passion, he has run out of ideas. You watch the volcanic lava flow of profanity and anger and you wonder, really, is that all there is in his coaching manual? Inspiration by degradation?

 

 

There is nothing else to say, because it is folly to ask the kids to line of battle self control and discipline when the supervising adult fails so abysmally at it. There is fiery, and there is abusive. The line mingled with them separates the coach from the bully.

There is nothing left to say, because anyone recruiting against Rutgers need only suggest that a parent watch the tape and answer one question. "Is that what you want for your son's college basketball experience?"

There is nothing left to say, because if much(prenominal) behavior is rationalized, what shred of credibility is left in a university's promise that it aspires to a higher standard?

Play the tape. Stop when you point to the part where the standard is high. Stop when you get to the part that screams for foolery for Rice -- which athletic director Tim Pernetti showed, with a three-game suspension. As penalty goes, that was more than a parking ticket, and a lot slight than it should have been.

There is nothing left to say, because it doesn't have to be that way. This is not nearly making a team tougher. This is not about instilling pride, trying to get a team deposit to compete against all the meanies in the Big East. If that is the excuse, it is an empty one. There are plenty of tough-minded teams out there, competing against the best of the best, without resorting to scratchiness behind closed doors.

Besides, it hasn't seemed to work. Seen Rutgers in the NCAA Tournament lately?

 

As outsiders, we have to be careful how we judge that world. Any number of players can and do tell stories of harsh practice treatment, and feel they were the break down for it. Including some from Rutgers, who have been quoted as facial expression they were not unduly bothered by it all. Maybe they understand better than we.

It is a complex relationship. A player goes to college, and this is the coach's charge: Help trade name him confident. Help make him a winner. Help make him a man. Tough love is OK. Stern demands are OK. A raise voice is OK. Strict accountability is OK. The job is not for the soft, or the coddled.

But what happened on those tapes is not OK. It can't be OK. Remember the stormy practice tape that once leaked on Bob gentle? This makes Knight look like Mr. Rogers.

The coach threw basketballs at players' heads. The coach called players the well-nigh vile of names. The coach ranted and railed. I don't know his motives, or his thinking, nevertheless it looked like a documentary on road rage.

Is that the way you have to act to have a good basketball team at dear old Rutgers? The athletic director has said no. But if Mike Rice faces no more penalty than three games and a $50,000 fine, what he's really saying is yes. A depressing answer, for the very game itself.

 

Materials taken from USA Today